Member FAQ: Rescission of Manager and Lawyer Delegation
What was the manager and attorney delegation? Why did the Guild issue it in the first place?
The Guild issued a “Limited Delegation of Authority to Negotiate Overscale Terms with Guild-Signatory Companies” to managers and attorneys on March 19, 2019. The purpose of the delegation was to make clear that writers’ managers and lawyers could continue to provide representation services to their clients during the agency campaign without fear of intimidation. To be frank, pressure was being applied—implicitly and explicitly—to managers and attorneys to not provide representation services to writer clients if writers terminated their agents en masse. The Guild intervened to ensure writers had the representation services they needed during the Agency Campaign.
Why is the Guild rescinding the delegation now?
The rescission becomes effective on May 14, 2021.
Why doesn’t the WGA currently regulate managers?
The goal of the agency campaign was to ensure that, if you chose to have an agent, the agent’s interests would be aligned with yours. The campaign was predicated on the recognition that certain agency practices had damaged our alliance with agents. A few agencies had too much power and had used that power to institute conflicted practices. Those practices often led to writers having to pay an agent, along with a manager and an attorney – the so-called 25% tax. The Board does not believe currently that managers have such concentrated power, nor that, by and large, managers engage in conflicted representation practices that require WGA intervention. If the Board decides at some future date that manager practices need to be regulated, we will come to the membership and ask your support to do so. In the meantime, we are returning to the status quo before writers fired their agents, with the difference being that agents are now regulated in an improved and necessary fashion.
I am not represented by an agency at this time. Do I now need an agent to procure work or make my deals?
No, you are not required to be represented by an agency.
I have no one to review my deal and/or review my long-form. Can the Guild help?
Yes. If you already have a deal negotiated, and need the long-form contract reviewed, we can help with that. Please contact Geoff Betts, WGA East’s Director of Contract Enforcement & Credits, at 212-767-7852 or gbetts@wgaeast.org.
